Commuters crammed into rush-hour trains would probably consider their own service to be the most overcrowded in the country.

But the busiest route in terms of crowding is the 7.44am Henley-on-Thames to Paddington in London, according to new Government figures.

That train, taking people from the Oxfordshire town into the capital, has a load factor of 180%.

This means that when the survey was carried out - during autumn 2011 - the Henley-London service was travelling 80% over capacity in standard-class carriages.

From January 2, Henley season ticket holders will see their annual fare rise 4.18% to £3,388.

Publishing the figures today, the Department for Transport said the First Great Western company had recently added an extra carriage to the 7.44am train, taking the number of standard-class seats to 340.

The second most crowded service was the 7.32am from Woking in Surrey to Waterloo in London, which was 64% over capacity.

Third and fourth were two evening services from Euston station in London to Birmingham New Street - the 6.13pm from Euston, which was 62% over capacity and the 4.48pm at 60% over capacity.

Fifth, at 58% over capacity, was the 6.30am Banbury in Oxfordshire to Paddington in London service, while in sixth place, at 57% over capacity, was the 7.55am train from Stourbridge Junction to Stratford-upon-Avon in the West Midlands.

In seventh place, at 55% over capacity, was the 6.23am from Manchester Airport to Middlesbrough, while in eighth position was the 6.17pm train from Liverpool Street in London to Shenfield in Essex, which was 54% over capacity.

At 52% over capacity, the 7.14am service from Alton in Hampshire to Waterloo was ninth, while the 10th most-crowded service was another London-Birmingham evening rush-hour service - the 5.46pm Euston to Birmingham New Street, which was 52% over capacity (rounded up but slightly lower than the ninth place figure).

Transport Minister Norman Baker said: "Climbing on a crowded train where there is little space can often be an unpleasant experience and I sympathise with passengers who have to travel on these services.

"The operators on the list are aware of the crowding problems on these particular services. I will be monitoring these services closely, and others which have not made the top 10 list, and urging train companies to reduce crowding on the busiest services."

"Faster trains and better services are attracting record numbers of people to the railways, but the flip side is overcrowding on some routes.

“Train companies understand passengers' frustration when they cannot get a seat and operators are taking action where they can. The DfT’s statement highlights the steps operators have taken to increase capacity or where they plan to introduce extra services. Overall, train companies now run 20 per cent more services a day than they did 15 years ago.

“But train companies also depend on others to tackle overcrowding. That is why we set out plans last year with Network Rail to provide nearly 180,000 more seats when services are busiest and why we need government to give operators more flexibility to respond to passenger demand.”

These were the 10 most-crowded routes according to data collected in autumn 2011. The load factor figure is based on 100% being the normal capacity of the train:

The operator abbreviations are FGW - First Great Western; SWT - South West Trains; LM - London Midland; FTP - First TransPennine Express; NE - National Express East Anglia.

Michael Roberts, chief executive of the Association of Train Operating Companies, said: "Faster trains and better services are attracting record numbers of people to the railways, but the flipside is overcrowding on some routes.

"Train companies understand passengers' frustration when they cannot get a seat and operators are taking action where they can.

"The DfT's statement highlights the steps operators have taken to increase capacity or where they plan to introduce extra services.

"Overall, train companies now run 20% more services a day than they did 15 years ago."

He went on: "But train companies also depend on others to tackle overcrowding. That is why we set out plans last year with Network Rail to provide nearly 180,000 more seats when services are busiest and why we need the Government to give operators more flexibility to respond to passenger demand."